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Dr. Bernstein is the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Lead for Research at NASA Headquarters. This post also appears on the Women in Planetary Science blog.

As the lead for research at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD), I am often told by the NASA HQ folks who run the research programs that it's a lot of work to find enough qualified proposal reviewers who are not conflicted. Similarly, it's not uncommon for proposers who are unhappy with their evaluations to assert that the people who reviewed their proposal must have been unqualified. To solve both of these problems and, just as importantly, to increase the diversity of the pool of reviewers, I am writing this appeal to potential reviewers.

Back to top.2. New Director Of Air And Space Museum Is The First Woman To Hold The JobFrom: Maria Patterson [mtpatter_at_uw.edu]

Ellen Stofan, a former chief scientist at NASA, is the new director of the Air and Space Museum and the first women to hold the job. She says, "One of the reasons that I'm so excited to come to the museum is to help tell the story that women have actually been involved in aviation and the space business from the beginning. Telling stories of people of color, telling stories of women - to me, that's what helps the next generation think, 'oh, well maybe I could do that.' "

Back to top.3. Women in Innovation: Gaining Ground, but Still Far BehindFrom: Maria Patterson [mtpatter_at_uw.edu]

"World Intellectual Property Day fell on April 26 this year. The theme was 'Powering change: Women in innovation and creativity.'...Patents are one useful trend for measuring innovation, and we found the imbalance between female and male inventors with U.S. patents is particularly pronounced. New research shows that, for a sample week in 2017, just 9.2 percent of the U.S. patents that were granted were made by female inventors."

Back to top.4. Scientists’ early grant success fuels further fundingFrom: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]

In a study of funding by the Dutch national science-funding agency, investigators determined that early-career grant recipients received more research funding in the years afterwards than did those who narrowly missed out on the funding. Publication records, as measured by h-index, were similar for those individuals slightly above and below the funding cut-off. "The findings emphasize the need for thoughtful, informed mentoring of junior academics about applying, and persevering, with grant applications, says Kathryn Sutherland, a social scientist at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. 'We definitely need to encourage resilience in the face of setbacks,' she adds."

Back to top.5. 6 Things Successful Women in STEM Have in CommonFrom: Maria Patterson [mtpatter_at_uw.edu]

"'For years, companies, universities and nonprofits have researched the reasons why women are less likely to enter STEM fields - and why, once they enter, they face challenges that frequently push them out. In prior research, we at the Center for Talent Innovation (CTI) found that women leave STEM fields in droves: 52% of highly qualified women working for science, technology, or engineering companies leave their jobs. We, and others, have found that the cultures surrounding women in STEM have been shown, time and again, to be particularly challenging."